Just before practices for fall sports are to begin, the West Perry School Board has voted to stop paying head coaches and has not signed off on any assistant coaches.

The board’s actions Monday have stunned coaches, parents and students. Fall practices were to begin Aug. 16 for football and other fall sports, but they will be delayed.

Because the board is to meet again Aug. 16, those involved hope the issue will be resolved then and sports can begin just one day late.

One coach called the board’s vote “a kick in the gut.”

“This is out of left field. This is a total shock,” said head football coach Al Ream. “We’re getting ready, kids are coming in, and kids are excited.” His seniors were close to tears when he told them the news, he said.

The school board approved a budget in June that “contained the money for the coaching salaries for the upcoming school year,” said school board President Charles Thiemann.

Asked why the board didn’t raise the issue of coaches’ salaries during the months-long budgeting process, Thiemann said, “That’s a very good question.”

West Perry’s fall sports — football, field hockey, boys’ soccer, girls’ volleyball and cross country — involve five head coaches and 12 assistants, Athletic Director Cory Hoffman said. The booster club reimburses the school for three positions.

On Monday night, the board voted on coaching issues three times, Thiemann said. A vote to approve a list of coaches and assistant coaches twice failed to get the necessary votes.

When Superintendent Rhonda Brunner asked the board for guidance on how to proceed, the board took a third vote to keep head coaches on as volunteers instead of paying them a stipend.

Now the school can’t start its fall season Aug. 16 as planned.

“The problem is school rules prohibit volunteer coaches working without a paid supervisor,” Hoffman said. “For liability reasons, you would want a paid staff person in charge. It’s very limiting in this current situation.”

In an e-mail to the coaches, Hoffman said assistant coaches shouldn’t attend practices, and head coaches shouldn’t try to hold practices on their own for safety reasons.

Thiemann said he thinks board members did not understand that their vote would delay the start of fall sports.

“I think it’s unlikely things will remain the way they are, but I’m hesitant to conjecture much more than that,” Thiemann said.

But if the board doesn’t approve coaches’ stipends at its Aug. 16 meeting, “We’ll be back to where we are now, which means we aren’t able to practice,” Brunner said.

Even missing one day of practice is a big setback, Hoffman said. “I feel it’s significant. The planning and attention that go into that fall sports preseason, I think any time you don’t have that time, your kids miss out.”

Tiffany Roush of Saville Twp., whose son Brendon is on the junior varsity football team, said she thinks the board will be able to resolve the issue.

“At least I think they’re smarter than that. I’m hoping everyone uses their brains and comes to an agreement so the kids can still have their sports,” she said.

“They’re putting a brand new turf down on the football field, so they must have money somewhere,” Roush said. “In my opinion, they didn’t need turf down on the football field. They do need sports.”

The district spent nearly $800,000 for artificial turf, according to board member Mary Colledge and the district’s website.

“They’re spending all this money on turf and now they don’t want to pay the coaches,” said Colledge, who’s received phone calls and e-mails from numerous people. “Everybody’s up in arms.”

Colledge said she found the votes Monday night confusing and thought she was voting for something else on the final tally. “I was under the impression it would freeze the salaries where they are.”

She didn’t realize until Tuesday afternoon that she had voted to cut head coaches’ stipends, she said. “I don’t have a problem with paying the coaches.”

But Colledge is put off by the community’s response.

“So many of these people weren’t even there,” Colledge said.

Field hockey coach Cori Zeigler was taken aback by the news.

“It’s not about me. It’s not about the coaches,” Zeigler said. “It’s about: How are we going to make it for these kids? How are we going to get them the practice that they need? They work so hard. Then this happened. The kids are devastated.”

People don’t coach for the money, Zeigler said, but it does pay for baby-sitting during practices. She won’t let her team down, but her own children will need to be at the practices now, too, she said.

“I think some people just see sports as a win-loss thing, and that’s not what a team is,” Zeigler said. “A team is about learning discipline, camaraderie, just the whole part of being something bigger.”

Brunner said she has received a tremendous response from parents, students and coaches who want fall sports to proceed.

Brunner, Thiemann and Hoffman were surprised by the vote, they said.

“Every school starts a budgeting process very early. It’s been many months,” Hoffman said. “I was not expecting this list to create a controversy. ... The budget was approved June 1. I submitted my budget in October of 2009.”

The list of coaches the board voted down was shorter than last year’s because there will be no ninth-grade boys’ basketball team, Hoffman said.

When he came to the district four years ago, the board asked him to review the formula on how coaches are paid, which led to good dialogues between the board and the athletic department, he said.

“It’s good to have that dialogue,” Hoffman said. “The problem we’re facing now is the timing. We’re less than two weeks out from fall sports.”

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